Up⚫date

Volume II, No. 3

California Initiative on Foreign Language Voting Qualifies

An initiative drive organized by the California Committee for Ballots in English (C.C.B.E.), which would give Californians an opportunity to petition Congress for a return to voting in English-only, has qualified and will be on the November ballot. The Committee turned in a total of 626,000 signatures in time for the May 29 deadline-more than 200,000 signatures above the required 423,000. U.S.ENGLISH members worked actively in the campaign, and remarked repeatedly on the enthusiastic reception they encountered wherever they solicited signatures.

Although the initiative is advisory in character and its passage will not immediately curtail the distribution of foreign language ballots (these are mandated by federal law, and can only be rescinded by Congress), it is certain that a “yes” vote for English-only elections will register strongly across the nation, and will attract serious attention in Washington.

Dr. Hayakawa, honorary chairman of U.S.ENGLISH and of the C.C.B.E., foresees a lively debate on the whole issue. "Californians will be the first citizens in the nation to have an opportunity to express their views on voting in foreign languages. We hope that they will vote to uphold the unique status of our common language, and the idea that some knowledge of English is a prerequisite to full participation in political life.”

Senate Holds

Historic Hearings On
English Language Amendment

The first Congressional hearings on an amendment to designate English the official language of the United States took place on June 12. They were held in the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, under the Chairmanship of Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). The English Language Amendment was initially introduced three years ago by former Senator S.I. Hayakawa; a somewhat different version of the Amendment was introduced this year by Senator Walter Huddleston (DKY) in the Senate, and by Congressman Norman Shumway (R-CA) in the House. The Huddleston version of the Amendment (S.J.Res. 167) reads:

"Section I. The English language shall be the official language of the United States."

"Section II. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

June-July 1984

Senators Huddleston and Hayakawa testified at the hearing, as did two co-sponsors of the bill, Senators Quentin Burdick (D-ND) and Steven Symms (R-ID). Representative Norman Shumway also presented a statement in support of the ELA. Another Congressional witness was Baltasar Corrada, the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, who is also vice-chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Mr. Corrada opposed the Amendment.

Gerda Bikales, executive director, delivered the testimony for U.S.ENGLISH. Speaking against the Amendment was Arnoldo Torres, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

U.S.ENGLISH chairman John Tanton commented that "these hearings are a historic occasion. I am sure that future generations of graduate students in history and politics will analyze the hearing record, to learn about our times and about the movement to strengthen national unity." Excerpts from statements presented at the hearing can be found inside the newsletter.

U.S.ENGLISH Makes
Presentation To

Party Platform Committees

U.S.ENGLISH presented the case for the defense of our common language before the national platform committees of the Republican and Democratic parties. Urging that the adoption of the English Language Admendment, the repeal of mandated multilingual voting, and improvements in bilin gual education be included in the parties' platforms this elec tion year, the statement assured Committee members that "like most important proposals, ours are truly non-partisanthey are civic rather than political in character. However, the party that displays the political courage to embrace them and incorporate them into its platform is certain to reap great political advantage from this action."

U.S.ENGLISH Testifies
On Bilingual Education
Appropriations

Gerda Bikales, executive director, presented the U.S.ENGLISH viewpoint on Fiscal Year 1985 bilingual edu. cation funding needs. In appearances before the relevant House and Senate Appropriation Subcommittees, Ms. Bikales urged that the funding level not exceed $100 million next

year. The 1984 appropriation is $139 million, and the Administration has proposed the same funding level for next year.

Ms. Bikales cited a number of other federal programs which provide dollars for bilingual education, including the Vocational Education Act, the Refugee Education Act, the Indian Education Act, the Migrant Education Act, Head Start, Title XX pre-school offerings. Title I funds, originally intended for for the education of disadvantaged students, are increasingly diverted to bilingual education. In addition, a bill to provide more money to school systems heavily impacted by immigration is now making its way through Congress, and could be. come still another significant resource for bilingual programs. Thus, the true federal expenditure for bilingual education is far in excess of the Title VII appropriation. Title VII is also known as "The Bilingual Education Act".

U.S.ENGLISH was the only public interest organization to testify in favor of funding restraints for this program. The National Association for Bilingual Education and the National Puerto Rican Coalition requested increases of $25-$35 million for FY 85.

An Independent Report On
"National Association For
Bilingual Education” Meeting

Last February, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Bilingual and Minority Affairs (OBEMLA), contracted with an independent Washington-based consulting firm, Market Growth, Inc., to report on the 13th Annual International Bilingual Education Conference of the National Association for Bilingual Education, held in San Antonio, April 4-7. The Conference theme was "Bilingual Education: Developing Partnerships With Industry and Government".

The described objective of the consultant report was to provide OBEMLA with feedback on the major issues, raised at the Conference, that are within the purview of that Office's concerns. The report is now ready. The following sections are quotations from it:

"With the exception of the Closing General Session, at which Dr. Jesse Soriano, Director of OBEMLA, was the keynote speaker, every General Session, Major Session, and Symposium advocated a greater role of the Federal Government in Education, specifically Bilingual Education programs. Most speakers expounded at length on the need for, and the eventuality of, a multilingual, multicultural United States of America with a National language policy, citing English and Spanish as the two "legal languages." Present Civil Rights and general Administration program funding were attacked at great length as unresponsive to these goals."

"At each of the first three General Sessions, signature lists were passed throughout the audience. These lists authorized the Co-op Legislative Information Program, 500 NE 58th Street, Miami, Florida, 33137, to charge telegrams to each signer's phone number (minimum amount of $4.25 per telegram) in support of positive state and federal legislation relating to Bilingual Education and equity matters. The initial goal was 2000 authorizations."

"As of Saturday, the NABE President-elect, Dr. Sarah E. Melendez, stated that approximately 2500 signatures had been obtained."

"Civil Rights legislation, enforcement, the new Civil Rights Commission and future court test possibilities were attacked at General, Major, Concurrent Sessions and Symposia. All major speakers and presenters advocated, in fact, a segregated

approach until such time as a non-integrated, separately recognized society is prevalent with "equal benefits" and governmental approaches for those separate cultural and linguist (sic) groups."

"The one link to the second part of the published theme, "Developing Partnerships with Industy", was a constant recurrent charge that the United States cannot remain a world power without Bilingual/Bicultural changes within. A specific charge that our international trade deficit is a result of a monolinguistic approach was made repeatedly; that without the policies NABE advocates, the United States can never again deal internationally, nor successfully, either as a government or in private industry."

Copies of the full report may be requested from Mr. Vidal Rivera, Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Affairs, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue S.W., Washington, DC 20202

The organizers and attendees of the NABE Conference are virtually all bilingual education teachers, administrators, researchers, etc. whose salaries are paid with public funds. The National Association for Bilingual Education enjoys tax-deductible status, as a non-profit, non-partisan, non-political organization.

The Bilingual Education Act "Compromise"

The Bilingual Education Act is up for reauthorization this year, which traditionally involves a process of review and adjustment of the legislation. In deciding the future course of bilingual education, members of the House Committee on Education and Labor had a choice of simply renewing the Act (which is also known as Title VII), of accepting the Administration sponsored proposals to allow funding for other methods of instruction (such as structured immersion, E.S.L., etc.), or of going with H.R. 5231, introduced this spring by Representatives Dale Kildee (D-MI) and Puerto Rican Resident Comissioner Baltasar Corrada. The Kildee-Corrada bill seeks to enlarge the constituencies and the funding levels for bilingual education programs.

Committee members reported favorably out of Committee a "compromise" version of the Kildee-Corrada bill: 4% of the first $140 million appropriated for Title VII, and 50% of any appropriations above that figure, can be used for alternative teaching methods-up to a maximim of 10% of the total ap propriation.

Below are examples of monies available for alternative instruction at various appropriation levels under the compromise formula:

-$140 million: $5.6 million for alternative programs -$150 million: $10.6 million for alternative programs -$200 million: $20.0 million for alternative programs Representative William F. Goodling (R-PA) and several other members of the Committee objected to the "compromise". Said Mr. Goodling: "We mandate the use of only one type of instruction-to me that is frightening. That has to be the worst thing we can do." While other Committee members agreed with Goodling that there was no one best method to instruct limited English-speaking children, only Mr. Goodling voted against the bill that was reported by the Committee.

U.S.ENGLISH has indicated it's disagreement ♥ 1 "compromise".

There has been no Senate action on reauth

Senator Walter Huddleston, sponsor of the English Language Amendment (S.J. Res. 167):

"This Amendment addresses something so fundamental to our sense of identity as Americans that some, who are in full agreement with the objectives, may nevertheless question the necessity for such an Amendment. So widely held is the assumption that English is already our national language, that the notion of stating this in the Constitution may seem like restating the obvious. However, I can assure you that this is not the case and that the need for a Constitutional Amendment grows stronger every day."

Senators Hayakawa and Huddleston at Senate hearings, June 12. "For over two hundred years, the United States has enjoyed the blessings of one primary language that is spoken and understood by most of its citizens. The previously unquestioned acceptance of this language by immigrants from every linguis tic and cultural background has enabled us to come together and prosper as a people. It has allowed us to discuss our differences, to argue about our problems and to compromise on solutions. Moreover, it has allowed us to develop a stable and cohesive society that is the envy of many fractured ones, without imposing any strict standards of homogeneity."

"Statistics show a disconcerting trend away from the common use of English. In 1975, the Bureau of the Census reported that about 8 million people in this country used a language other than English in their households. When the census was conducted in 1980, the number of people who spoke a language other than English at home was found to be over 22 million. Although these numbers are subject to many interpretations, to me they indicate that the melting pot is not working as it once did."

Senator Quentin Burdick (D-ND), co-sponsor of the ELA: "In our differences lie our strength and personal pride. But in our differences also lurks the potential for unmanageable and irreconcilable division. We need only to look to our neighbor to the North to see what two official languages can do to a country... Establishing English as the official language

of this country now would avert insurmountable problems in the future."

"The definition for the United States citizen should include a knowledge of-if not mastery of-English. The ELA helps write and enforce that definition. Without it, our problems concerning national unity and ethnic diversity have not yet begun. With it, such problems can be prevented."

Senator Steve Symms (R-ID), co-sponsor of the ELA: "The Amendment pre-empts any further attempts to politicize langauage. It would not threaten the venerable American tradition of polyculturalism. Ironically, only a common tongue can preserve that tradition. Only a common tongue can bind together a nation made up of so many little nations."

Dr.S.I. Hayakawa, who as Senator from California introduced the original ELA in 1981:

"Of course one should, where possible, preserve one's background heritage, but for all of us Americans transplanted here from another culture, that is our second task, not our first. Our first is to learn the language of America, the social imperatives of being an American, the attitudes and customs that shape the American personality, the behavior that makes a good American citizen. Much of this is learned in schoolsin classes conducted in English. It is also learned in association with other children with other backgrounds. It is learned through participation in sports. It is also learned through the mass media-radio and television and movies. On top of all of this, most immigrant families teach something to their children about the language and culture of the country they came from. But the principal task of immigrant Poles in Buffalo, immigrant Germans in Milwaukee, immigrant Mexicans in Los Angeles, refugee Vietnamese in Arlington, Virginia, is to become Americans."